KNOW THE VOICE OF STRANGERS TOO
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Luke 23:43
Lord is our shepherd. We are His sheep. We need to follow Him as long as we live on this earth. Sheep follow their shepherd only by listening their master’s voice. They recognize the nature of their master’s voice and follow him since a sheep does not see his master’s face and follow him. As we are His sheep and He is our shepherd. Therefore, you need to know the nature of our shepherd’s voice.
And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of strangers. John 10:4:5
While you follow Him, you will also hear voice of strangers. These strangers include –wolf (Satan) and foxes (false preachers/Teachers). Therefore, you need to be aware of nature of strangers’ voice too. These voices divert you from the right path. They will lead you to everlasting destruction along with them. Therefore, while you follow your shepherd you hear three kinds of voices:
(1) God’s voice (The shepherd voice)
(2) Satan’s voice (Voice of Wolf)
(3) Man’s voice (Voice of foxes)
Let us see the nature of all these voices.
(1) God’s voice (The shepherd voice):
- (a) Lord’s voice has certainty .
This voice is of the Lord. Whatever He says there will find doubtlessness and certainty. This you will notice when He said -And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise Luke 23:43. Nature of His voice assures His sayings. If He says – “yes”, it is yes; “no” it is no.
Read this verse -And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat : but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:16. This is the nature of His voice.
There may be many religions which teach their doctrines concerning the life of a man on this earth. They teach you about your life on this earth for the period between your birth to your death. There is none that can teach you about the God’s plan for a man even before his birth on this earth, guide them during their life span, and eternal life after his death. This Bible only that teaches completely and with certainty. As He has come from the above, He is worthy to teach all things of heaven to His people. None can teach the things of heaven as they are not from the above and therefore their teachings will be of pure assumption coming out of their human minds.
- (b) God’s voice has authority:
When He told Adam, you may observe nature of His voice. It is written – Lord God commanded the man. God’s voice has authority. He never speaks like a man. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Matthew 8:28-29. As a sheep following the Lord, you need to recognize the nature of His Voice as by this you will follow Him all your life.
(2) Satan’s Voice ( Voice of Wolf)
2.(a). Satan’s voice creates confusion:
Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Genesis 3:1.
Satan’s voice creates doubts on the voice of God or word of God. Adam and Eve were instructed by the Lord not to eat the fruits of tree of knowledge of good and evil. They also heard voice of stranger (Wolf) but did not question it. They should have run away from this stranger’s voice. But they did not do so. The word of God says –And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him
2.(b) Satan’s voice imitates the voice of the Lord:
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. Genesis 3:4 . God uses“surely” for assuring human beings to lead them to the fountains of living waters. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures : he leadeth me beside the still waters. Psalms 23:2. These still waters are nothing but the living waters available to those go to paradise after their death. Satan imitates the nature of God’s voice, thereby deceives human beings. This same devise he used to deceive Eve and Adam. Thus, it is important for you to know the Satan’s voice too in order to escape from his deception. Satan does not want you to be with your shepherd and therefore he draws your attention with all his devises of cheating to sidetrack you.
- (C) Satan’s voice questions the authority of the Lord:
Look at these verses –And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Matthew 4:3 & and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down : Matthew 4:6. Satan questions the authority of the Lord. Satan knows that God has full authority but still wants to question his authority. As it is written in the Bible –And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Matthew 28:18. Therefore, whenever you hear the voice that questions His power, know that this is the voice of Satan.
(3) Man’s voice (Voice of foxes):
Man’s knowledge is not complete in nature. Therefore, with his limited knowledge he cannot understand God’s knowledge completely. He needs the assistance of the spirit of the Lord to know them well. Without the help of Holy Spirit, one cannot understand His knowledge completely. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ?even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:10-11
Therefore, when a man tries to understand the things of God with his brain or with the assistance of his spirit, they will not be understood completely. If a man who preaches Lord’s doctrine mixes it up the doctrines of other religions doctrines, he is a blind man leading other believers to the everlasting ditch. These are from their limited brain. They will mix up the voice of God, Satan’s voice and their voice too and thereby confuse the sheep. God’s voice is pure. A man should not mix with this with doctrines of other faith and thereby divert the ways of the believers. This is the nature of fox voice. As the fox always thinks cunningly, these men also devise new doctrines to gain from you. For example, if a man who preaches – there is iron man, flying saucers, and all non-sense etc., and confirms that Bible says these things to believers, are not they sidetracking the sheep following the true shepherd? Look at the Lord’s gospel. His gospel tells people about – repentance, salvation, righteousness, kingdom of heaven, hell etc, but does tell not about flying saucers, iron man etc., knowledge of which is not a necessary thing for a Christian to know for his entry into Paradise or heaven.
As a sheep, you need to know about all these voices as you know Satan never wants you to be with your shepherd. He never desires you to drink the living waters unto which your shepherd leading you. You need to recognize the nature of His voice. His voice is clearly identified in the Bible.
This is the war with powers of darkness with regard to your faith throughout your life. You need to vigilant and overcome this war. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7. If you overcome other diverting voices that trouble your faith, surely as God has promised to the 2nd thief or malefactor in the above verse, you shall enter Paradise of God.
You notice two malefactors have been hanged on their crosses along with the Christ on this Good Friday. One of them says – “if you are Christ save yourself and save us”. And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly ; for we receive the due reward of our deeds : but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Matthew 23:39-42. As you have seen questioning the authority of the Lord is nature of Satan’s voice. One of the malefactors represents the voice of Satan. The other malefactor says when you come with your kingdom, remember me. He has never seen Jesus before except on this day of his punishment on his cross but still has believed Jesus is going to come again with His Kingdom. He has faith. Therefore, this second malefactor represents you- a sheep having faith. Therefore, he has rebuked him as you need to rebuke Satan ( James 4:7). He has overcome the influence of voice of Satan, thereby has entered the Paradise where Jesus also with him.
You see in paradise- there are (1) The Tree of Life for which access was earlier given to man in the Garden of Eden but did not utilize. (2) Living waters (Revelation 22:1-2)– which is flowing from under the thrones of God and the Lamb which the Lord has promised to give us (John 4th Chap, Isaiah 49:10) (3) There is peace for you unto which He has promised you lead ( Psalms 23:2). This is confirmed by the Lord as you see in his parable concerning Lazarus who is comforted in the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16:25). Therefore, learn to identify the nature of God’s voice. Identity Satan’s and his fox’ voices to flee away from them. Never lose your right to access fruits of tree of life and living waters kept for you in paradise.